Creating cost-efficient initiatives in social work practice in the cardiac program of an acute care hospital

All three cost-saving initiatives--the creation of a one-page application form to streamline the rehabilitation application process, the use of the resource specialist to assist with applications, and the development of an information package on cardiac rehabilitation--reflect a process whereby a creative idea, generating planning, activities, and follow-up resulted in a measurable effective change in practice. This process truly translated strategy into action (Kaplan, 1996) and is vital to the current rethinking in health care of how best to do our work (Coan, 1994). Because of this process, social workers in the cardiovascular surgical division of the cardiac program are better equipped to respond to the psychosocial needs of a growing cardiac population in a fiscally restrained environment.